JP Morgan: do not call Whale

THE FORMER JP Morgan Chase & Co trader known as the London Whale was not responsible for Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy and should not be dragged into an $8.6bn lawsuit accusing the largest US bank of causing it, JP Morgan has said.

According to a filing in the Manhattan bankruptcy court, JP Morgan believes that Lehman’s own documentation showed that the trader, Bruno Iksil, had nothing to do with alleged mismarked derivative trades that are part of the dispute.

Getting Iksil involved now would waste time and money, JP Morgan said, particularly in light of statements by former US Treasury secretaries Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson that the collateral requests did not cause Lehman to fail.